Did someone call a taxi for Lewis Hamilton? The McLaren driver is to take time out from challenging for the Formula One championship to get behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Impala from America’s NASCAR Sprint Cup.

A slightly-built young man dodges through the shadows, face partly hidden by a black hoodie. But even as he tries to conceal his identity, there’s something incredibly familiar about him. Welcome to the secret world of Lewis Hamilton, international crime-fighter.

It’s an image almost impossible for the mind to conjure up – Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton plucked from the high tech glamour at the pinnacle of motor sport and dropped into the brash and noisy world of American stock car racing instead.

It’s not exactly a major recycling initiative capable of slashing Formula One’s environmental impact, but at least something from Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 British Grand Prix-winning car ended up being reused.